WPSL seems to be adding new teams every time we blink, we wanted to go back to one of 2019’s addition and play catch up. Mankato, Minnesota, a city of around 40,000 residents, is about two hours south by southwest of Minneapolis and the Soccer Club itself was founded in 1986 to serve the community. Protagonist contacted Mankato United during the WPSL annual conference and they were gracious enough to reply with in-depth answers and a few great photos. Thank you to Rustin Luedtke, MUSC WPSL General Manager for taking the time to reply at such a busy time for the league, and for the club.

Judging by the WPSL website, it looks like 2019 was your first year in the league - was it the first year for your women's squad, or had it played at another level prior? Why was the team founded and how does that fit into the mission of the entire Mankato United Soccer Club mission?

2019 was our first year in the WPSL. We did not play in another league, and the WPSL was our first entrance into this level of play. We entered into the WPSL for several reasons. First, as our club has grown, we wanted to provide an opportunity for our college players to have a place to play and train when they came home on summer break. Second, having a team at this level gives our younger players a visual representation of what they can aspire towards in the future. Third, Mankato has really grown as a soccer community and our early suspicions about how the community would embrace us absolutely turned out to be true. Our WPSL team is 100% an extension of our mission and has greatly rounded out our development continuum. A next future step for us as a club will be to consider adding a men's team in the upcoming years.

What a season it was too, Mankato Utd. finished top of the Central Region / Northern Conference, having only lost one match only gave up 8 goals all season. Is it just me, or did you miss out on the playoffs despite having beat Salvo 2-1 in your final game of the year?

It was a great season! We didn't start out the way that we wanted, but ended up winning 5 games in a row to round out the season. We expected to be competitive in our first year, but it was really our players that took us to the next level throughout the season. They had a ton of GRIT and just loved to compete.

Jennifer Vetter had 3 goals and 2 assists, Dakota Wendell had 3 goals and 3 assists, and Annie Williams also bagged 3 goals. Are you expecting you scoring leaders back in 2020? Will we see any changes in formation or philosophy to add more goals to the total?

We will have several of our top scorers back, as well as look to attract additional scoring talent. Jenny Vetter was an All American this fall season for MSU Mankato and will look to lead our attack, but don't be surprised if you see several other players challenging Jenny for that top scorer position this summer. In general, we play an attacking style of soccer. We missed a ton of opportunities last year that I would expect us to put in the back of the net this summer.

Maggie Smither was solid as a rock - had 13 saves, 1.00 GAA, and maybe 4 clean sheets? It looks like she entered the NWSL draft too! Although it doesn't seem like she was taken in the draft, she may be on the radar of an NWSL team. How proud is your organization to have a player in the draft? If she were to go, who do you have waiting to fill in between the posts?

Maggie is a special player and person. She helped inspire and lead our team last summer. We are very hopeful that Maggie is able to continue her dream of playing professionally, whether that is being a developmental player for an NWSL team, or playing internationally. She will be a positive contributor to any team that she plays on, regardless of where that might be. To have a player in the NWSL draft has been amazing. As a first-year program, to be able to attract talent like Maggie Smither or Annie Williams was truly special for us....it is something that we absolutely want to build on!

What are you most looking forward to in 2020? What defines success this Year?

The summer of 2020 is shaping up to be fantastic. We have roughly half of our roster at this point, and will be recruiting pretty heavily from now until May. The thing that I personally am most looking forward to most is the fun that our team has. It is a special group and we look to do a lot more than play and train during the summer. We are active in the community, we hang out and visit our sponsors often, and in a very short period of time become a family. Success will be defined by the players that we continue to attract, the product that we put on the pitch, and the positive experience that we provide for the young ladies that are part of our program for the Summer. Our soccer goal is obviously to be competitive and win the conference every year, but the Mankato WPSL team is about more than just soccer. We help our players to find internships, home-stays, lead sessions on mental toughness, and more. Success for us is the whole package.

For more information about Mankato United SC: https://www.mankatounited.org/

For more information about the WPSL: https://www.wpslsoccer.com/